Johnson, Peters Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Digitize the Permitting Process
The ePermit Act would digitize the permitting process across the federal government
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representatives Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) and Scott Peters (D-CA) introduced the bipartisan ePermit Act to digitize the United States permitting process, reducing processing time for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews.
In April, President Trump published a memorandum to emphasize the importance of modernizing permitting technology. In May, President Trump launched a Permitting Technology Action Plan directing federal agencies to make maximum use of technology in the environmental review and permitting process. The ePermit Act builds on the recommendations from the Administration and provides legislative clarity and direction on how agencies should implement such an electronic permitting system.
“The government, industries, and citizens all agree that it takes too long to build in America,” said Johnson. “Completing the permitting process by paper is an archaic waste of time. Digitizing the system will speed up the process, save federal dollars, and cut down delays. Making this commonsense change will unleash investment in American communities and workers.”
“Our permitting system is old, complicated, and slow—if we want to build the roads, bridges, broadband, and clean energy of the future, we need to modernize and streamline the permit process,” said Peters. “Our bipartisan ePermit Act builds on the efforts of the last two Administrations and brings our permitting process into the 21st century. I look forward to working with Representative Johnson to pass this commonsense bill into law.”
Background:
The current permitting process has failed to ensure project permitting is on-time and on-task. Oftentimes, the root causes of delays in the environmental review process have little to do with questions about environmental protection and a lot to do with failure to embrace modern technology and move on from legacy bureaucratic approaches, like paper forms.
Congress must address the root causes for delays, which include compiling and reviewing lengthy paper documents, a lack of accessibility and transparency – leading to misunderstanding, conflicts, and all too often, protracted litigation – and continued reliance on outdated technologies and processes for interagency review and comment.
The ePermit Act would address these root causes by establishing a framework for agencies to implement a digital permitting system and unified portal.
Click here for bill text.